Professor Bryan Druzin is a specialist in legal theory. His scholarship applies game theory and behavioral economics to law and political theory. Dr. Druzin has published extensively with leading U.S. law schools (Duke, Cornell, Harvard, Northwestern, University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown, etc.), top international peer-reviewed journals, and has contributed to several edited volumes published by Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. Dr. Druzin holds a B.A., LL.B., and LL.M. from the University of British Columbia and a PhD in law from King's College London. He teaches jurisprudence and contract law, and has previously taught at Brunel University and King's College London. Dr. Druzin is Director of the Faculty's LLM Programmes. In 2015, Dr. Druzin received the university's Research Excellence Award, providing substantial financial support for his research.

Dr. Druzin's scholarship relates to a single, defining idea: understanding and managing the bottom-up emergence of legal order. This topic cuts across a broad range of legal domains. His work thus addresses some of the most pressing issues of modern legal theory, such as the self-ordering potential of private law, treaty stability in public international law, the emergence of global governance, the growing power of soft law, spontaneous changes in mass social norms, and the self-ordering nature of customary law, rights, and markets. Dr. Druzin's work is highly interdisciplinary. It draws from economics, normative ethics, and the study of complex systems.

Dr. Druzin's current research projects explore the implications of bottom-up ordering for the formation and stability of governance structures under anarchy. The central question this research addresses is whether it is possible to accelerate the emergence of global governance by employing our knowledge of game theory and the mechanics of self-organization. Dr. Druzin is a frequent speaker at legal forums around the world, and is regularly interviewed by international media on issues related to his scholarship.

Education

PhD (King’s College London)

LL.M. (University of British Columbia)

LL.B. (University of British Columbia)

B.A. (University of British Columbia)

Awards

The Chinese University of Hong Kong Research Excellence Award 2015

University of British Columbia Graduate Scholarship Award 2007

Hugh M Brock Scholarship Award 2002

Hugh M Brock Scholarship Award 1995

Representative Publications

Journal Articles

Institutional Lock-in within the Field of International Investment Arbitration, 39 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW (2018) (forthcoming).

"Strengthening International Institutions in a Time of Global Disorder" presented at the European Society of International Law (ESIL) Research Forum at Hebrew University Faculty of Law, in Jerusalem, Israel (February 2018).

"Escaping Institutional Lock-in" invited to speak at The Future of Asian Trade Deals and IP at Singapore Management University, in Singapore (December 2017).

"The Rise of Soft Law" invited to speak at the 2nd Annual Conference of the French Association of Law and Economics (AFED) at Aix-Marseille University, in Marseille, France (November 2017).

"Towards a Greater Practice of Investment Arbitration in Asia-Pacific" invited to present on panel entitled Investment Law and Arbitration in the Asia-Pacific Region: Current Regionalisation, Emerging Issues, and Future Prospects at the 14th Asian Law Institute Conference (ASLI) in Manila, Philippines (May 2017).

“Legal Ambiguity and the Limits of Censorship” presented at the 11th Annual General Conference of the European China Law Studies Association (ECLS) at the University of Roma TRE, Faculty of Law, in Rome, Italy (September 2016).

"Why Utilitarianism is not a Moral Theory" invited as keynote speaker at the 'World Lumen Congress 2016,' in Iasi, Romania (April 2016).

"Soft Law as Spontaneous Order" invited to present at 'HKU-NUS-SMU Conference 2016' at the Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong, in Hong Kong (February2016).

"Sustainable Development in China: An Opportunity for Creative Environmental Governance" invited to present at 'Consumer Policy in China: New Trends and Challenges' at the Faculty of Law of the University of Macau, in Macau, China (December 2015).

“The Fragility of the Norms that underpin Environmental Cooperation: A Game Theoretic Analysis” invited to present at the ‘International Conference on Cooperation between China and ASIAN States on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage’ at the South China Sea Institute of Xiamen University, in Xiamen, China (November 2015).

“Why the Nation-state does not make Sense” invited to present at ‘New Approaches in Social and Humanistic Sciences’ at The Public Institute of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, in Chisinau, Moldova (September 2015).

“From Chaos to Cooperation: A Proposal to strengthen International Treaty Compliance” invited to present at the UK-China Comparative Public Law Symposium at Shandong University, in Jinan, China (April 2015).

“The parched Earth of Cooperation: Solving the Tragedy of the Commons in Global Water Conservation” invited to present at the Globalization of Water Services International Rules and Challenges at Maastricht University in Brussels, in Brussels, Belgium (June 2014).

“Authoritarianism’s new Leash on Speech”” presented at the Joint-workshop on ‘Technology, Energy and International Economic Law’, hosted by Chinese University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong, SAR (September 2012).